BlogPositive

You need to get out more

As I've been taking more walks recently I've noticed that I'm much more engagaed with what is going on.  When you get out and about that is what happens.  You discover things, meet people, see things changing, notice the environment.  This means you can change your perspective, be refreshed, learn things and also share things too.  You will find you develop a wider interest in things.  And people who are interested are usually interesting.

How many of us sit in the same chair all day and never even walk as far as the photocopier?  How many of us don't even bother to walk around in other departments, other buildings.  When did you last venture outside during your lunch break?  How many different ways do you know to get to the canteen?  How many different people might you meet if you chose a table at random today?  What could you learn about your work from people who do very different jobs?

I used to work in a company of about 250 people.  On Fridays I didn't send any internal emails or make any internal phone calls.  I walked around the place and talked to people instead.  That meant I knew people as people rather than just a name on a email.  I had a very small team and our work only got done through influencing others.  As a reusult of my walks I could get almost anything done.  And a side benefit was that I got the biggest collection ever when I left!

The world is full of positivity but you may not find it sitting at your desk all day.  You need to get out there and discover the world beyond your office door.  Where can you go today?

Being pleased

Be pleased with yourself, because you can. Sounds simple but it is harder than you think.

This is a quote written by Peaceable on www.oneword.com yesterday.  Its very very true.  How often do you tell your kids, friends, colleagues or partner that you are pleased with them.  Don't you think that you are also worth the same level of praise?

I'll let you into a secret.  You don't have to wait for someone else to recognise what you have done.  You can just be pleased yourself and you will feel a warm glow.  In fact you can be pleased with yourself in a way that no-one else can.  You can be pleased with yourself because of your thoughts and ideas that no-one else need ever know about.  For instance, I'm pleased with myself for being fully awake at 6am today, before the alarm clock went off.  I'm pleased with myself for thinking of lying on the other side of the bed so that I could see through the window the trees thrashing around in the gale.   I'm also pleased with myself that my first thougths today were about me and not about work.  And thats all before breakfast!

Imagine if you could generate that warm glow all day, just for yourself.  So just stop now and jot down three things that you are pleased with yourself about. 

Difficult?  Don't worry it will get better with practice.  Just stop every couple of hours and notice what you are pleased with yourself about.  We are actually pleased with ourselves for many things but they don't make it into our consciousness.  By stopping and making a conscious effort to notice these things we get positive feedback, feel better about ourselves and that makes life so much better.

Be more pleased with yourself today!

Note:  Go to www.oneword.com There you will be given one word and a minute to write about it.  Its a really good exercise to wake up your brain.  Yesterday's word was pleased.  You'll find my contributions listed under my pen name of Ember.

Walking to work

I walked to work today, and yesterday.  Those of you that know that I work from home might see this as a bit mad.  I actually went out for a circualr walk and back to house after 15 minutes.  However I am trying it out to see if it will make me more effective by adding structure to my day.  When you are self employed its all too easy for work to spread into life time, even though I always expect the opposite to happen.  So its not uncommon to find that I've been working from 8.30am to 9pm and not really achieved anything, and then I also have no time for myself.

So how can you play with structure in your life?  Do you need more or less structure?  Do you need structure applied by yourself or imposed by someone outside, like your boss or the time-clock or your children?  What would it be like if you took your watch off for a whole day?  What would it be like if you divided the day into half hour chunks and allocated tasks or activites to each one?  What would happen if you spent an hour doing things for 10 minutes only?  How is your structure different when you are working and not working?  Could you transfer one structure to the other?  What would it be like if you got up or left the house with no plan and just did what took your fancy?

Play with structure and see how your energy changes.  I'm really looking forward to walking home tonight. This morning I saw a red squirrel on my walk!